Extension Pointers #1: A step-by-step guide to integrate Google Contacts using Sigma

Extension Pointers #1: A step-by-step guide to integrate Google Contacts using Sigma

Integrating and syncing data is a significant factor for effective customer relationship management.

Let's consider a scenario where an entrepreneur is planning on starting a new venture. An important factor in propelling any business towards success is a solid customer base. Maintaining important information about potential customers is also a critical element in managing a business effectively. In this post, we want to show you how to establish an integration that will manage data synchronization between different services efficiently.

Why integrate?

Integrating two services allows data to sync seamlessly between them. The Zoho Developer platform, Sigma, lets you build plug-in software extensions. Connector is a feature in Sigma that allows you to integrate with a third-party application through these extensions.

So let's say that an entrepreneur needs to sync Zoho CRM (client application) with Google Contacts (third-party application) and develops an extension using Sigma. Using the Connectors component, we can accomplish this integration between the applications. This integration will effectively sync contacts between the apps, providing consolidated customer information. This saves the entrepreneur's time and manual work. Below, we'll see the exact steps on how to establish a connection between these two services and export a contact from Zoho CRM to Google Contacts.

Topics covered:
➤ Creating a connection between Zoho CRM and a third-party application
➤ Registering with Google to obtain client credentials
➤ Adding a custom button and associating it with a custom function to perform an action

How to establish connections between services

To enable secure synchronization with a third-party application, certain authorization protocols must be followed. Zoho Developer provides two approaches for integrating services based on the type of user authentication supported by the third-party application:

1. If the third-party application that you want to integrate with Zoho CRM supports OAuth 2.0 protocol for user authentication, you can use connectors.
2. If the application you want to integrate with Zoho CRM only supports API key forms for user authentication, you can use custom variables.
In our scenario, lets see how to use connectors to create a secure connection with Google Contacts.

How to use connectors to establish a connection via OAuth 2.0

 You will need URLs for a request token, access token and refresh token along with a client ID and secret to complete the connection process.


1. Choose Connectors from the left panel of the Zoho CRM console under Utilities, and then click Create Connection.



2. Provide the required information in the respective fields.
  • Connector Name: A name for the connection to be established.
  • Name of the Service: The name of the third-party application.
  • Signup URL: The signup URL of the third-party application.
  • Request Token: The URL for sending an authorization request to the third-party application server from the client application.
  • Access Token: Once the request is authorized by the server, the access token is sent to the client. This token is exchanged every time the client needs to access the third-party application data.
  • Refresh Token: There are few access tokens that expire after a limited time. In that case, this URL should be used to request a different access token.
Note: The URLs for a request token, access token, and refresh token can be obtained from the API documentation of Google.

For your reference, the values used in our example are as follows: 

3. Click Save after providing the necessary details.



4. In order to obtain the Client ID and Client Secret, you must register with a web service (in our example, Google). If you need further instruction on how to obtain the Client ID and Client Secret, please take a look at the following section.
Note: The Redirect URL appearing in the Client Credentials dialog box is necessary to create the Client ID and Client Secret in the upcoming section.

5. Click Save after entering the Client ID and Client Secret to set the Client Credentials successfully.

6. Click Authorize Connector to Authorize the connection between the services. A connection is now successfully established between Zoho CRM and Google Contacts.

How to register with Google and obtain the Client ID and Client Secret?

1. Log into the Google API Console with your Gmail account credentials. Create a New Project.



2. Click ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES to manage the necessary APIs.



3. Search for the Contacts API, and click the ENABLE button to activate it.



4. Select the Credentials section present in the left panel, and click the CONFIGURE CONSENT SCREEN to fill in the application information.



5. Click Create after choosing either Internal or External depending on your target users.



6. Enter the Application name and the Authorized domain, and click Save.



7. Go back to the Credentials section, click CREATE CREDENTIALS, and choose OAuth client ID.



8. Provide the Application Name along with the Redirect URL that was listed on the CRM developer page during connector creation, and click Create.



9. The OAuth client credentials are now created and appear in a dialog box



10. Enter the unique Client ID and Client Secret obtained here in the Zoho CRM Client Credentials dialog box.

Add API calls and associate them with the connector

Upon authorizing the connection, the next step is to create a connector API that specifies how the components should interact. The steps to create connector APIs in the client application are:

1. Click Create Connector API. Enter the necessary details in the Create Connector API dialog box. In our example for adding a contact from Zoho CRM to Google:

Name of Connector API
PushContacts
Method Type
POST
URL

Request Body: 
  1. <atom:entry xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"

    xmlns:gContact="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008"

    xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005">

    <atom:category scheme="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#kind"

    term="http://schemas.google.com/contact/2008#contact"></atom:category>

    <gd:name>

    <gd:givenName>${FirstName}</gd:givenName>

    <gd:familyName>${LastName}</gd:familyName>

    </gd:name>

    <atom:content type="text">Notes</atom:content>

    <gd:email rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work"

    primary="true"

    address="${Email}" displayName="${FirstName}"></gd:email>

    <gd:phoneNumber rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work"

    primary="true">

    ${Mobile} 

    </gd:phoneNumber>

    <gd:organization rel="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#work" primary="true">

    <gd:orgTitle>${Title}</gd:orgTitle>

    </gd:organization>

    </atom:entry>
2. Click Create to create the Connector API successfully.



3. Click Execute to set the token variables. 



4. Click Set & Execute, and observe the response code to check if the API works. 



5. Click Publish after successfully executing the API. 



Once published, the API needs to be associated with the extension. It appears under the Associated Connectors tab. Click Add to associate the connector GoogleSync with our extension CRMsyncGoogle.


Click View All APIs to check the Unique API Identifier.


Here, crmsyncgoogle.googlesync.pushcontacts is the Unique API Identifier. 


Exporting contacts to Google from Zoho CRM

After the successful execution of the API connector, the next step is to implement the desired function. There are multiple options to do this. In our example, let's create a button and associate it with a custom function to push a contact from Zoho CRM to Google Contacts upon clicking. 

Creating a "Push Contact to Google" custom button to perform the POST operation
Choose the Components section in the left panel of the extension console page. Select the Links & Buttons tab and click Create New Button.



Choose the Contacts tab, name the button, and choose the place where the button needs to be located. Select Writing Function as the action that will be performed by the button.



Write your custom function "pushcontact" to implement the "Push Contact to Google" button operation. This will allow you to push a contact from the Zoho CRM Contacts module to your Google Contacts.

pushcontact function Code Snippet:


cont_resp  zoho.crm.getRecordById("Contacts",contact.get("Contacts.ID").toLong());

Firstname = cont_resp.get("First_Name");

Lastname = cont_resp.get("Last_Name");

mail = cont_resp.get("Email");

mobile = cont_resp.get("Mobile");

title = cont_resp.get("Title");

map = {"FirstName":Firstname ,"LastName":Lastname ,"Email":mail ,"Mobile":mobile ,"Title":title }; 

response = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("crmsyncgoogle.googlesync.pushcontacts",map);

return "Contact Pushed";

How to check and test the functionality?

Click the Test your Extension button to check how your extension functions in the sandbox testing environment.


Under the Contacts module, in the testing environment, let's try and export "Customer2" to our Google Contacts. Click the Push Contact to Google button, and go to the Google Contacts to view your contact being added.


There are many different scenarios where connectors can be of use. In our example, we have seen how to add a contact from Zoho CRM to Google.
We recommend that you try using the connectors feature available in our developer platform to integrate with other third-party applications and reap the best benefits it has to offer.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

    Access your files securely from anywhere











                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts





                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner







                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                              Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Need support in setting up the company email and few other setups

                                                                                                              Need support in setting up the company email and few other setups
                                                                                                            • This mobile number has been marked spam.

                                                                                                              Dear zoho team, I am very happy to use zoho,because it india 🇮🇳 own app, but when we login into zoho account we facing some issue, please solve below issue ASAP. Add your mobile number As an added security measure for Accounts, you need to verify and
                                                                                                            • IP Address Blocked

                                                                                                              Hi Team. Hope you're doing good. I'm unable to access Zoho with my IP address. I have to use VPN to access it. IP: 39.44.12.153 This is happening with all the Zoho products, the admin console and the mail.
                                                                                                            • Add an external email to the allowed list

                                                                                                              I need to allow an external email to raise a ticket on Manage Engine ServiceDesk Plus. The external email is a outside of our domain and is not a domain user. The email address that needs to be allowed to raise a ticket request is noreply@formsatack.com.
                                                                                                            • Display name & account type change

                                                                                                              I made a mistake and subscribed with an individual account instead of business, how can I change the account type and enter the details of the business. The other question, if I can't, then I want the display name of our email to be 'Business name' instead
                                                                                                            • Request to change display name in Zoho mail

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Mail Support, I am experiencing an issue with changing the display name on my Zoho Mail account. My email address is: info@witchcraftproduction.rs . I have already updated the display name in Settings > Mail Accounts, where it now shows as
                                                                                                            • Outbound IP address SPAM problem.

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Support, We noticed that one of your outbound IP addresses (136.143.188.12), which delivers our domain’s mail, is currently listed on the UCEProtect blacklist. Because of this, our messages are sometimes flagged as spam by recipient servers.
                                                                                                            • Answer Bot and Personalized Questions

                                                                                                              Hi there, I have the same problem using the SalesIQ Answer Bot and the Zoho Desk Answer Bot (which really need different names, to be honest, in order to avoid confusion...) Customers that visit our website ask questions in the form of "What do you do?"
                                                                                                            • Forwarding

                                                                                                              How can I forward my Zoho account to my gmail account? Noël
                                                                                                            • Your bot just got smarter: AI-Powered routing that reads between the lines

                                                                                                              What if your bot could tell the difference? Between a visitor who just needs a quick answer, someone actively comparing options, and a frustrated customer one click away from leaving? Most bots can't. They deliver the same response to everyone, missing
                                                                                                            • Add a Way to Duplicate Cards in the Same Canvas (Retain All Settings)

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, We would like to request a new feature in Zoho SalesIQ: the ability to duplicate an existing card within the same canvas while retaining all of its information and settings, including conditions, configurations, and display preferences.
                                                                                                            • Zoho Mail CC and BCC not working

                                                                                                              Zoho Mail CC and BCC not working. I have tried multiple combinations amongst my domain aliases but emails sent as CC or BCC never arrive, not even to Spam. I have checked that the DNS is set up correctly in Cloudflare and have even received a DMARC report
                                                                                                            • Is anyone else having trouble saving a custom image in their email signature, or is it just me?

                                                                                                              When I try to save the image I get an error that says "Operation Failed" I opened a support ticket two weeks ago and received a response that it would be debugged, but it still isn’t working
                                                                                                            • Feature Request: Tag, Search, and Report on Individual Private Comments

                                                                                                              Zoho Desk Team, First, I want to say that we are extensive users of Zoho Desk and it is a core part of our support operations. We rely heavily on the private comments feature for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and maintaining a clear history
                                                                                                            • Zoho Autoplay Issue

                                                                                                              Currently, we run our graphics on a playlist with youtube videos interspersed in our office -- however, when we go to update the playlist (since last Thursday at around 8-9am EST) it no longer saves the autoplay function.  We have tried making a new account, manually saving with cntrl+s, making a new show, etc but nothing seems to work.  Even with our old program, we can't change it off of autoplay for ones that were created in the past. Another issue is that if we change a slide transition to anything
                                                                                                            • Allocating inventory to specific SO's

                                                                                                              Is there a way that allocate inventory to a specific sales order? For example, let's say we have 90 items in stock. Customer 1 orders 100 items. This allocates all 90 items to their order, and they have a back order for the remaining 10 items which could
                                                                                                            • Critical Issue: Tickets Opened for Zoho Support via the Zoho Help Portal Were Not Processed

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, We want to bring to your attention a serious issue we’ve experienced with the Zoho support Help Portal. For more than a week, tickets submitted directly via the Help Portal were not being handled at all. At the same time no alert was posted
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #152 - Client Script Support for the new Canvas Record Forms

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Have you ever wanted to trigger actions on click of a canvas button, icon, or text mandatory forms in Create/Edit and Clone Pages? Have you ever wanted to control how elements behave on the new Canvas Record Forms? This can be achieved
                                                                                                            • Adding hyperlinks in CRM emails time automatically

                                                                                                              It may just be me, but when I am writing an email to a lead, I find inserting a hyperlink very time consuming. Granted, I can use templates but there are a ton of scenarios where I might want to put a link in to an website that wouldnt require me to go though the effort of creating a template.  Ideally, the crm would identify that I that a string of text is a URL and insert the hyperlink automatically, just like microsoft outlook or gmail. Has anyone else had this same experience and found a way
                                                                                                            • Enhance "Applications Usage" with Date Filters, Historical Analytics & App-Level Breakdown

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Creator Team, We are writing to request a critical enhancement to the Applications Usage section to improve our ability to monitor, analyze, and manage our platform consumption over time. While the current view of today’s usage is helpful for
                                                                                                            • External File Share - Allow delete

                                                                                                              Hi Team, when I share an external link and give it edit rights the external user can add but not delete files and folders. what am i doing wrong?
                                                                                                            • Cliq iOS can't see shared screen

                                                                                                              Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
                                                                                                            • Tables from ZohoSheets remove images when updated from source

                                                                                                              I have a few tables from a ZohoSheet in a ZohoWriter document that will remove the images in the cells when I refresh from the source. The source still has the images in the table when I go to refresh. After updating from the source, as you can see the
                                                                                                            • Empowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individuals
                                                                                                            • Where is the Global Search field?

                                                                                                              I am looking for an alternative to SF.com. Zoho CRM seems to be work fine, and be customizable in terms of the fields and reports. But there's one big thing missing and it's going to prevent us from using it: there's no global search box at the top of
                                                                                                            • Enhancements to finance suite integrations

                                                                                                              Update: Based on your feedback, we’ve updated the capabilities for integration users. In addition to the Estimates module, they can now create, view, and edit records in all the finance modules including Sales Order, Invoices, Purchase Order. We're also
                                                                                                            • How to notify all members on any updates to zoho crm?

                                                                                                              Hi, I am using the free version of zoho CRM and currently seeing this will work for our company. We are a small company and wanted to be more informed about all the changes in zoho. 1. How do I s et notifications that go to the team for any and all changes
                                                                                                            • How to change the format for phone numbers?

                                                                                                              Mobile phone numbers are currently formatted (###) ###-####.  How can I change this to a more appropriate forms for Australia being either #### ### ### or (#)### ### ###?
                                                                                                            • Unattended Access on Android without Play Store

                                                                                                              I'm testing Zoho Assist for remote config and maintenance of our IoT devices. The devices are running Android 8.1 and do NOT have Google Play Store installed, nor can it be installed. I've been able to install Zoho Assist on the devices and load the enrollment
                                                                                                            • How can I bold text on Zoho Forms submit buttons?

                                                                                                              In the old theme builder, I could bold the text on a form's submit button. With the new theme builder, I can only change the text of the header or fields in the form, and not the button itself.
                                                                                                            • Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

                                                                                                              Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real
                                                                                                            • Is it possible to embed Zoho Bookmarks in the Cliq sidebar?

                                                                                                              Is there any way that each Zoho user can access their bookmarks (that live in https://bookmarks.zoho.eu/ which is technically a part of Zoho Mail) directly within Cliq? As a widget, or an item in the sidebar? My team does not use Mail, it uses Cliq all
                                                                                                            • Show Attachments in the customer portal

                                                                                                              Hi, is it possible to show the Attachments list in the portal for the particular module? Bests.
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #142: How to Navigate to Another Page in Zoho CRM using Client Script

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. In this post, let us see how you can you navigate to different Pages using Client Script. In this Kaizen post, Need to Navigate to different Pages Client Script ZDKs related to navigation A.
                                                                                                            • Navigate with Ease: Announcing Improvements to Your Zoho CRM for Everyone's Setup Experience

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone, We’re thrilled to announce new enhancements to the Setup Menu in our Zoho CRM for Everyone system, designed to simplify your workday and streamline your overall experience. What's New? Addition of a Setup Homepage Faster Search in Setup
                                                                                                            • Zoho Projects Webhook fails with HTTP Error 0

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Community, I am pulling my hair out over this one. I have setup a very basic http(s) server that always responds "ok" and code 200 to incoming GET requests. It will accept any parameters, and any path. Really, all it does is say "ok," and log
                                                                                                            • API 500 Error

                                                                                                              Hello amazing ZOHO Projects Community, I get this message. How can we solve this? { "error": { "status_code": "500", "method": "GET", "instance": "/api/v3/portal/2010147XXXX/projects/2679160000003XXXX/timesheet", "title": "INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR", "error_type":
                                                                                                            • ZOHO Campaignで表のカラムの幅を調整したい。

                                                                                                              表を作成した際、個々のカラムの幅を調整したいのですが、方法が分かりません。 どなたかご存じの方ご教示ください。
                                                                                                            • Currency abbreviations

                                                                                                              Hello, Im stuck, and need help. I need the currency fields for example, opportunity value, or total revenue, to be abbreviated, lets say for 1,000 - 1K, 1,000,000 - 1M, and so on, how should I do this?
                                                                                                            • Unable to use Sign "You have entereed some invalid characters"

                                                                                                              Unable to use Sign "You have entered some invalid characters" I do not see any invalid characters. The text in "Leave a Note" is plain text which I entered directly into the field. See attached screenshot
                                                                                                            • Next Page